Nearly two years after the announcement of around fifteen clinics for “post-infectious symptoms caused by COVID-19 and Lyme disease”, only a third of these clinics deal with Lyme disease, a confirmed a deputy minister at the public inquiry into the death of Amélie Champagne on Friday.
“What we see today is [qu’il] There are five who receive people for Lyme disease consultation with persistent symptoms,” indicated the D.r Stéphane Bergeron, assistant deputy minister at the General Directorate of University, Medical, Nursing and Pharmacist Affairs of the Ministry of Health and Social Services.
PHOTO ERICK LABBÉ, LE SOLEIL ARCHIVES
Dr. Stéphane Bergeron was previously at the CHU de Québec.
The Deputy Minister gave his testimony on the last day of the public hearings of the coroner, Mr.e Julie-Kim Godin.
Montrealer Amélie Champagne ended her life in September 2022, at the age of 22. She had suffered for years from multiple symptoms similar to those of Lyme disease.
PHOTO PATRICK SANFAÇON, THE PRESS
Amélie Champagne’s parents, Alain Champagne and Joanne Bossé
For a long-term COVID-19 clinic to be able to offer services related to Lyme disease, “it is necessary to have a specialist doctor who is interested in the care and treatment or in the offering of services for this clientele”, but “there are still a very limited number who have shown this interest to date”, explained the Dr Bergeron.
“The most important measure is to surround doctors who are interested, to provide them with resources so that they are not alone,” mentioned the Dr Bergeron, referring to other health professionals such as physiotherapists and social workers.
The five clinics which “offer treatment services for chronic Lyme disease” are located in Estrie, in Lanaudière, in Bas-Saint-Laurent and in Montreal (CHU Sainte-Justine and Jewish General Hospital), specified the Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS) by email.
For long COVID-19, 14 clinics are in operation. The one planned in Lanaudière is missing “due to difficulties in recruiting staff,” notes the MSSS. “Efforts continue to open it as soon as possible. »
The MSSS has not planned research budgets for these clinics, the deputy minister also indicated. “We don’t subsidize research directly, we don’t have those funds,” explained Dr.r Bergeron, specifying that it is rather public and private funds which finance research.
Quebec has recorded more than 600 cases of Lyme disease during the year 2022 and the risk of contracting this infection “will increase”, for his part indicated the National Director of Public Health, Dr Luc Boileau, who testified at the opening of Friday’s hearing.
PHOTO EDOUARD PLANTE-FRÉCHETTE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
The national director of public health, Dr Luc Boileau
“We are now having cases where we suspect that they were acquired in Montreal and the Outaouais, this was not the case 10 years ago, we were not there at all, at all,” illustrated the Dr Boileau.
Other diseases “that can be carried by ticks […. ] will progress with this context of climate change,” also mentioned the National Director of Public Health.
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